Romania: Press review - February 22
Feb 22, 2010

Romania: Press review - February 22.
Bucharest, Feb 22 /Agerpres/ - Romania's national dailies of Monday give main coverage to film director Florin Serban winning a Silver Bear in the Berlin International Film Festival; Victor Ponta winning the chairmanship of the main opposition Social Democratic Party (PSD); MP Cezar Preda stating that the ruling Democratic Liberal Party (PD-L) might request chairmanship of the Senate; the latest disbursements of a stand-by arrangement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) likely to reach Romania by Tuesday; loan delinquencies having tripled in Romania in 2009.


Romania libera reports that Romanian film director Florin Serban's debut production 'Eu cand vreau sa fluier, fluier' (If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle) has won two important prizes in the 60th edition of the Berlin International Film Festival: the Silver Bear - the Jury Grand Prix and the Alfred Bauer prize for new cinema perspectives.

The paper says the international media commend the young Romanian director for his performance, with the British press saying the film is a gem and Brazilian critics saying the film is a direct drama 'like a fist bang.'


Curentul reports that the extraordinary convention on Sunday of the Congress of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) was watched as a cape and sword drama where combatants ready to fight mixed with Gypsy women who came to chase away the evil spirits and the bad luck that has been plaguing the party for many years. After Miron Mitrea and Radu Mazare told the plenary meeting of the convention that they were pulling out and throwing their support behind Victor Ponta, Cristian Diaconescu's withdrawal and his supporting outgoing PSD chief Mircea Geoana was one of the key moments of the convention.

The freshly elected chairman is already considering a 'two-in-one plan, namely to oust controversial Marean Vanghelie from the office of the PSD Bucharest branch and replace him with Miron Mitrea, Romania libera remarks.

Jurnalul national reports that PSD Neamt MP Culita Tarata announced he was withdrawing from PSD and joining the group of independent MPs, becoming the third PSD MP to do so in the aftermath of the Congress convention and the election of Ponta as PSD chairman. The other two MPs having announced their leave from PSD at the weekend are MP Ioan Muntean of Neamt and Senator Serban Mihailescu of Teleorman.


Curierul National quotes Deputy Vice-President of the ruling Democratic-Liberal Party (PD-L) Cezar Preda as having told a television channel on Sunday that if PSD withdraw their support for Mircea Geoana, who lost the PSD chairmanship on Sunday, to chair the Senate, the next in line to replace Geoana will be a PD-L senator.

'From my point of view, given the Romanian politics of the past 20 years, when your head rolls it has to roll all the way down. I do not believe Geoana will survive in the office, no matter how strongly the PSD is now claiming for unity,' Preda said on Sunday in reaction to the changes in the PSD leadership as a result of the party's Congress extraordinary convention the same day.


National leader of the Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania (UDMR), minor at rule, Marko Bela stated on Saturday in Targu Mures that the law on the national minorities and the reshaping of the economic development regions of Romania are the main priorities in UDMR's talks with PD-L.

Curierul National remarks that in relation to the regrouping of the development regions, Marko said he hopes a compromise will be found.

'I do not know whether or not the final map will look like we have suggested to, because you know well that in a coalition solutions are worked out by compromise. One thing is sure about the economic development regions, namely that even our PD-L colleagues agree that the current division is not good and that Romania should have some 15-16 such regions, instead of the existing eight,' said Marko.


The next two disbursements worth 2.3 billion euros of the stand-by arrangement between Romania and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will reach Romania on Tuesday, despite Romania lagging behind with its reform commitments, Evenimentul Zilei notes.

The IMF Board of Directors on Friday approved a revision report on the arrangement and decided to pay out the third and fourth disbursements of the loan that are worth a combined 2.3 billion euros.


Adevarul remarks that the ongoing crisis has made it impossible for Romanians to pay back loans on schedule, boosting the business of a new industry: debt recovery companies are now doubling their revenues each year. There are nearly 750,000 indebted loan takers whose payments are more than 30 days overdue and the bank debts of Romanian individuals are estimated to reach 730 million euros in 2010.

Ziarul financiar notes that a high indebtedness rate and downward adjustments of income will delay rapid resumption of lending to individuals, despite the signals for monetary relaxation sent by the National Bank of Romania (BNR), and will put more pressure on loan delinquencies, which tripled in 2009.


Romania libera also reports that the National Motorways and National Roads of Romania Corporation (CNADNR) has completed an inventory on the potholes on the 16,000 km of national roads under its administration.

The inventory does not include the potholes on the remaining 60,000 km of county and communal roads that are administered by the local public administrations. The inventory completed some days ago by CNADNR indicates that the potholes on the national roads and motorways have so far this year expanded to cover 2.6 million square metres (260 hectares).


Curentul remarks that Bucharest City is the most investor-attractive city in Eastern Europe but it is ranked just 18th in a ranking of 25 big European cities drawn up by British fDi Magazine, published by Financial Times.


Evenimentul zilei remarks that the draft law concerning the modernisation of the Romanian education system provides for only one session for the Baccalaureate high school graduation examination. Kept secret, more so than a nuclear weapon, the new education law is shaping up at the Education Ministry. The paper managed to find out that the draft law, still being worked on, includes both elements from the report of the presidential board headed by Mircea Miclea and the law for which responsibility has been taken and that bears the signature of former Education Minister Ecaterina Andronescu.

The paper notes that the Education heavyweights, now under the command of Minister Daniel Funeriu, are contemplating changing again the organisation of the Baccalaureate high school graduation examination. They would like the exam to be held in one session only and have the graduates failing one of the tests to sit the entire examination the next year.


Romania's women's handball team Oltchim Rm. Valcea has taken a big step forward toward the semifinals of the Champions League, as it defeated on Sunday Viborg of Denmark, 27-26 (16-12) in a home match in the main group of the competition. AGERPRES
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